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User friendly is defined in the wider sense as being a product or a service which the user or potential user can effectively use without either experiencing any significant level of difficulty or requiring to seek assistance. User friendly relates to something which although they may not be naturally accustomed to, they can take to fairly easily and feel comfortable with in a very short space of time.

User friendly defined in terms of website construction provides the website builder, creator or developer with a number of challenges, the very first one of which is both the biggest and the one upon which they are most likely to flounder unless they are extremely careful.

When anyone is creating or developing a website, it is almost certain that they will have at least intermediate if not extremely detailed knowledge of the process of doing so. They may very well be formally trained and qualified in web design and construction and capable of creating and developing a very functional and interesting site almost as a matter of course. This can be a very profitable business in these times of the Internet growing at an incredible rate but what the developer must not lose sight of is the likely computer skills and knowledge of those whom the site is designed to attract.

If the website being constructed is designed for a very specialised and technical market, the principals will not apply so readily, but if - as is far more likely to be the case - the site is designed to be of wider public appeal, the webmaster has to be very careful. Although they themselves have extensive knowledge of specialised systems, HTML and a whole host of other factors, the vast majority of the people they are looking to appeal to will not.

It is imperative that if the website is to be user friendly, the developer assume that their site visitors will have little or no computer or Internet knowledge whatsoever. They must ensure that all instructions are in plain English (or relevant other language) and that the visitor is essentially taken by the hand and guided through the process of both navigating the website and using it for its designed purpose.

The webmaster must bear this in mind at all times of the construction process but it is equally important that they test the effectiveness of their attention to this detail prior to putting the site live and attempting to draw traffic. They should ask friends, family or other acquaintances with minimal web knowledge to look at their site, attempt to navigate it and comment upon how easy they found the process of doing so. Only in this way will the webmaster assure that their site is both technically sound and user friendly.

Learn more about this author, Gordon Hamilton.
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